Seward Softball Sweeps Pratt

With half of their eight remaining Jayhawk West games scheduled against the team they were tied with in the conference standings, the Pratt Beavers, the Seward County Lady Saints had a chance to make a move in the standings Wednesday afternoon at Lady Saints Field in Liberal. They took advantage of their opportunity, sweeping the twinbill from the Beavers, shutting them out 4-0 in the opener and out slugging them in game two 11-4 to inch closer to the .500 mark on the season.

Seward jumped ahead right away in game one of the doubleheader, scoring twice in their first at bats, using the speed of Kennedy Brunson to plate their first run and getting a two out RBI triple from Venice Batts for their second to take an early 2-0 lead.

Lady Saints starter Kelly Kearney kept the Beaver bats quiet through five, retiring 10 straight from the 2nd to the 5th to keep it a 2-0 Seward County lead.

Seward added to their lead in the 5th, getting back to back triples from speedsters Brunson and Jaidyn Mawhinney to start the inning followed by an RBI single up the box from Kristyna Garcia to push their lead to 4-0.

Kearney did the rest from there, working around a pair of Pratt singles in the 6th before finishing off the Beavers in the 7th to preserve the 4-0 shutout win.

Kearney spun her first complete game shutout in the win, allowing just five hits without walking a batter and striking out three to improve to 13-10 on the year. Brunson and Garcia each had two hits to lead the Seward offense, Brunson scoring a pair of runs in the win and Garcia scoring one and driving one home.

SEWARD COUNTY/PRATT GAME ONE BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/sball/2015-16/boxscores/20160413_208q.xml>

Early on in game two, it was the Mawhinney show in the circle for Seward. The sophomore right hander faced the minimum through three, allowing the Lady Saints to score the first runs of the game in the bottom of the 3rd.

The first seven hitters of the Lady Saints 3rd reached base safely, their only out coming on a caught stealing on the bases. Garcia drove home two with a single and Venice Batts followed that up with a run scoring single of her own to give Seward a 3-0 lead. An RBI groundout by Hannah Clark made it 4-0 Seward and an RBI single to left from Hannah Lopez stretched their advantage to 5-0.

Mawhinney worked another 1-2-3 inning in the 4th and had a perfect game working against the Beavers until Pratt finally broke through in the top half of the 5th. After being unable to get anything for the first four innings, the Beavers came alive in the 5th, using five hits and three Seward errors to jump right back into the game at 5-4.

The Lady Saints responded with a crooked number of their own in the bottom half of the frame as Brittany Corrales triple down the right field line to begin the inning and Garcia doubled to left behind her to make it 6-4 Seward. After Batts was hit by a pitch, Lopez doubled to plate two more to stretch the Seward lead back to four at 8-4.

The 6th began just as the 5th did for Seward, with a leadoff triple from Corrales and an RBI knock from Garcia to make it 9-4. Later in the inning a two out double to the gap from Callie Silvers-Harnly made it 11-4 and Mawhinney did the rest, working her sixth 1-2-3 inning of the game in the top of the 7th to slam the door on the Beavers and finish off the sweep for the Lady Saints.

Seward pounded out 15 hits in the win while Pratt managed just four, all coming in the 5th inning. Garcia and Lopez both had big games at the plate for the Lady Saints, each cracking three hits while combining for seven RBI’s in the win. Corrales also had three hits including the two triples while scoring three times. Mawhinney threw a gem outside of the 5th, not allowing a single baserunner outside the inning. She improves to 10-10 on the year with the win, yielding just four hits and two earned runs while striking out four.

SEWARD COUNTY/PRATT GAME TWO BOX SCORE<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/sball/2015-16/boxscores/20160413_f9ag.xml>

Seward improves to 24-26 overall on the year with the wins, leapfrogging the Beavers in the standings as they improve to 7-11 in Jayhawk West action. Pratt falls to 11-25 and continues a drought in conference play as they drop to 5-13.

The Lady Saints will continue a busy final 10 days of the season on Saturday when they travel to El Dorado to take on 6th ranked Butler in a 2:00 doubleheader.